What is a health and safety assessment?
Clients come to use looking for independent Health and safety assessments. To manage health and safety effectively, you must monitor your systems to ensure controls actually work. Monitoring serves as a vital “pulse check” to confirm things are operating as intended, whether through formal audits, inspections, or simple floor walks. We offer guidance on Health and safety assessements to help you identify the best approach for your organisation.
The Self Inspection Process
Inspections verify that your compliance requirements and critical risk controls are active and effective. This regular internal process identifies opportunities for improvement. A word of caution: if your inspection is merely a series of checkboxes, it is likely time to review your process.
The External Audit
An audit goes deeper. It evaluates your Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) system—including policies and procedures—against applicable standards and regulations.
Crucially, an audit provides an independent, external perspective. For an organization’s “officers,” the audit serves as a critical tool for fulfilling the due diligence required by law. This is a common service Winsland, as independent health and safety consultants, provide to clients.
The Winsland Health and Safety App automates workplace assessment
The APP automatically generates site inspections by location at a frequency the user sets. This covers standard compliance checks on equipment, facilities and procedures. Completion is on PC or mobile device. The App Dashboard monitors compliance.
The APP also provides a facility to audit all controls to ensure they are in place and working. As with inspections, it is a case of set a date and press a button and the audit is generated. Completion is on PC or mobile device. The App Dashboard monitors compliance.
Why Audit and Inspection Matter
Ultimately, it comes down to one word: assurance. Our team performs audits and inspections not only to identify improvements but also to deliver the specific assurance you need to maintain a safer, more compliant workplace.
As a result, these audits provide every level of your organization with the confidence that health and safety is under control—thereby ensuring compliance, a safe environment, and a robust safety culture.
Where
Our Approach to Health and Safety Assessments
In Health and safety assessments we utilize recognized standards while simultaneously customizing every audit to align with your organization’s unique features. Furthermore, our process integrates standard audit tools built directly into the Winsland Health and Safety App, which evaluates both compliance and critical risk controls.
In addition, for larger organizations or those pursuing ISO or ACC certification, we base our audits on recognized international standards such as AS/NZS 4801 or ISO 45001.
Case Study: Due Diligence Audits
This Health and safety assessments was a case where professional receivers took over a failed Auckland based construction company. Consequently, they became the PCBU and assumed responsibility for several large building sites across Auckland from Kumeu to East Tamaki. To fulfill their due diligence obligations, the receivers required absolute assurance that the sites were managed safely.
However, these sites presented significant challenges, such as:
- Structural Integrity: Buildings were left partially completed.
- Communication Barriers: Many workers did not speak English.
- Regulatory Gaps: Few workers had trained under New Zealand regulations.
Due to these factors, the project faced an elevated level of risk and complexity. This required a pragmatic approach with a sharp focus on critical risks. Over the following months, Winsland provided the necessary expertise to navigate these issues while the work was completed.
The Results
Consequently, the partnership achieved the following outcomes:
Due Diligence: Ultimately, the receivers discharged their duties with total confidence that health and safety was effectively managed.
Compliance: All contractors met NZ health and safety requirements.
Safety: Moreover, the project reached completion without a single serious harm event.